Pets

On January 9, the Macon-Bibb animal control facility entered its third Pet Pardon, pledging not to put down any animals through January 22.

Engineered once again by Shane Smith of Paws for Hope and Faith, the pardon was signed by director Sarah Tenon, and this pardon includes a unique event within the event: an off-site adoption period Saturday.

While the facility is open on Saturdays, except for holidays, for on-site adoptions, this is the first time animals have been allowed to leave the confines of the shelter for broader exposure to the public.

There is an old cliche: No good deed goes unpunished. When area residents try to do the right thing by helping a lost, injured or distressed animal, that old cliche can become all too true.

In recent months, several dogs and cats have been helped by Good Samaritans who reached out instinctively to help. For them, the priority is to handle the immediate need, and worry about the rest later.

Several area animals are in need of broader assistance from the public, however. They were taken in off busy streets, found wandering and lost in the neighborhood, injured in accidents or are simply excess baggage for an uncaring family.

After a tornado decimated her Monroe County neighborhood last year, Wendy Veal and her husband, along with several neighbors, began the long process of rebuilding. Not all of the neighbors returned. Among them was a family that owned a black dog.

No one is quite sure, but it's possible the dog fled during the storm.

Fast forward to about one week ago, when Veal spotted a large, black animal on the surveillance video of her home.

"I thought it was a panther," she said. "I told my husband, be careful when you're cranking up the car because there's a big, black animal out there."

Early the next morning, long before sunrise, Veal went outside. "This dog lifted up his head from behind the woodpile," she said. "He looked about 60 pounds, and he's a full-grown black lab."

When she returned from work later that day, the starved dog was still there, so she gave him food and water. "I gave him three big bowls of water and lots of dog food," she said.